Supreme Court of California

In a tort and invasion of privacy case brought by the unnamed subject in a scholarly article, which described her apparent recovery of a long-repressed memory of childhood abuse, against the authors of another article who published related materials without naming her, a judgment finding that most of plaintiff's claims should be dismissed under the anti-SLAPP statute is reversed in part where the Court of Appeal should have dismissed three of four claims that it found could proceed.

Appellate Information

• Decided 02/26/2007
• Published 02/26/2007

Judges

• GEORGE, C.J.

Court

• Supreme Court of California

Counsel

• For Appellees:
  
• Davis Wright Tremaine,Thomas R. Burke, San Francisco, Rochelle L. Wilcox, Los Angeles;  Christopher Patti, Oakland;  Selman-Breitman, Jeane Struck, Gregg A. Thornton, San Francisco;  Rutan & Tucker and Duke F. Wahlquist, Costa Mesa, for Defendants and Appellants Elizabeth Loftus, Melvin Guyer, Carol Tavris, the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP), Skeptical Inquirer and Center for Inquiry West., John P. Hollinrake, Walnut Creek, and Demosthenes Lorandos for Defendant and Appellant Shaprio Investigations., R. Chris Barden;  Bishop, Barry, Howe, Haney & Ryder and Mark C. Raskoff, Emeryville, for National Committee of Scientists for Academic Liberty as Amicus Curiae on behalf of Defendants and Appellants., Thomas A. Pavlinic and Kristine M. Burk, Woodland Hills, for The False Memory Syndrome Foundation as Amicus Curiae on behalf of Defendants and Appellants., Levine Sullivan Koch & Schulz, James E. Grossberg, Seth D. Berlin, Jeanette Melendez Bead;  Harold W. Fuson, Jr., La Jolla;  Michael Kahane, Barbara Tarlow;  Cohn & Marks, Kevin M. Goldberg;  Charles J. Glasser, Jr.;  Peter Scheer, San Francisco;  Thomas W. Newton, Sacramento, James W. Ewert;  Anthony M. Bongiorno;  David M. Giles;  Barbara W. Wall;  Jonathan Donnellan, Kristina E. Findikyan;  Karlene W. Goller, Los Angeles;  Stephen J. Burns, Sacramento;  King & Ballow, Tonda Rush;  Susan E. Weiner, James Lichtman, Craig Bloom, Sylmar;  George Freeman, David E. McCraw;  Wiley Rein & Fielding, Kathleen A. Kirby;  Lucy A. Dalgish, Gregg P. Leslie, Baker & Hostetler, Bruce W. Sanford, Robert D. Lystad, Bruce D. Brown;  and Robin Bierstedt for The Copley Press, Inc. American Media, Inc., The American Society of Newspaper Editors, Bloomberg News, California First Amendment Coalition, California Newspaper Publishers Association, CBS Broadcasting, Inc., CBS Radio, Inc., The E.W. Scripps Company, Freedom Communications, Inc. dba The Orange County Register, Gannett Co., Inc., The Hearst Corporation, Los Angeles Times Communications LLC, The McClatchy Company, National Newspaper Association, NBC Universal, Inc., The New York Times Company, Radio-Television News Directors Association, The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, Society of Professional Journalists and Time Inc. as Amici Curiae on behalf of Defendants and Appellants., McCloskey, Hubbard, Ebert & Moore, Hubbard & Ebert and Julian J. Hubbard, Redwood City, for Plaintiff and Respondent., A. Steven Frankel for The Leadership Council on Child Abuse & Interpersonal Violence as Amicus Curiae on behalf of Plaintiff and Respondent.